Friday, September 25, 2015

Sept. 21, 2015hola

so this was a pretty packed week...many pictures were taken..so that's good! lots of wood chopping to help this one member get ready for the winter. we had HUGE success with a Mexican night that we did Saturday. lots of members and less actives came with even a couple of investigators. all in all it was really awesome. thanks mom for all of your help and advice for the activity too! everyone is getting more stoked about church and stuff and we are trying to get people excited about conference that's coming up! lots and lots of work to be done! and I'm really enjoying it. this experience has provided me with so many priceless lessons and memories. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to serve. i only have like 5 weeks left and that scares me! i actually keep having nightmares where i get home and they take my name tag off and i wake up crying haha.....yeah its gonna be a tough one. but I'm thankful for my time here and what i still have left! I'm gonna try to take advantage of every minute! well that's about all i have to be honest...just enjoy the many pictures! love you all and have an excellent week!!!

Elder Glenn

¡¡una noche MEXICANA!!pancho villa and emiliana zapata

( a game I suggested they play, "human Knot" Jacob said

his companion said in Mexico they call it "cat intestines")

helping Chapelo get ready for winter

paisaje

my shoes died on me while i was walking!....#missionprobs

this thing is adorable

la cascada

yeah...that's my comp on that ledge...

this thing is SUPER fun....i have no idea why its at a kdis park....they could literally die haha

well i have a really "awesome" keyboard so this Might be a short letter haha . i got sick with a cold this week , but we still Went out and worked, but we really didn't Have much success, but that's okay Because we are still stoked about the work and are going to do better this week. We went yesterday to the transmission of the Mexico City Temple rededication and it was really cool. In Other News this week we Helped brother go get this one wood to stock up for the winter. we Climbed This Mountain and then a chopped down a dead tree and hauled it back by horse. it was pretty sweet!

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Sept. 7, 2015hola

so this week was really awesome. my comp and i worked really hard. we had the temple trip on saturday and got up at 1 to help send them off. 8 members attended and one of them was a sister that received her endowment which was really really cool. i would have loved to have gone, but unfortunately the temple is outside of mission boundaries. but it all went really well so I'm super happy. then yesterday we had 39 people attend church! it was incredible. we have been working so hard and are finally seeing some good results. normally anywhere from 14-20 people go to church, but now we are getting a lot of less active members attending and we are super stoked. we are working with some of those less actives so that can come do visits with us try and help get them excited about the church. we are finding loads of new people to teach and that are willing to investigate the church and want to make changes in their lives. I'm really happy because we are seeing this area grow a lot right now. so we are just going to keep doing what we are doing and try and improve.

yesterday i discovered this new video series that the church came out with: http://addictionrecovery.lds.org/steps/1?lang=eng and it is REALLY cool, being someone who has personally gone through this 12 step recovery program i HIGHLY recommend it for ANYONE. i have been reflecting a lot this past week on my past, who i used to be and who i am now. i love the Lord. i love our Heavenly Father. He is so so merciful and loving. he has helped me literally change who i am. i am so much different than i was several years ago and i owe it all to Him. i have been filled with His love this past week and have had intense feelings of gratitude for all that He has done for me. He loves each of us so much...He only wants us to be happy, He just wants us to be able to progress and that's why He does all that He does, that's why we have so many resources to utilize to be able to get help in times of need and move forward positively. honestly i feel so much compassion and thankfulness to my Saviour and my Father in Heaven. being His representative has taught me so much. i have so much to learn and to live, but i am so incredibly grateful for all that He has done for me and given me. i love you all so much and i hope you all have a great week!

well this was a pretty cool week. my comp and i decided we wanted to raise our goals and work even harder and we were able to reach a bunch of them and wow we found some really awesome new people to teach this week. we had a bunch of really cool lessons.

this past week we had our temple trip planned but so many people got sick and a family member of several of the members in the branch died so they went to the funeral and we had to reschedule the trip. but it's going to happen this week end! so we are working super hard so that everyone can go! we ran around like crazy last week and gave some blessing and everyone is feeling better so we hope to have a successful temple trip this week! we appreciate all your prayer btw! haha

I'm really enjoying the work, its hard and really challenging but its really rewarding when we just have awesome lessons and meet cool new investigators that want to know more. desgraciadamente my companion is counting down the days till i go home...yeah thanks bro haha. well i hope you all have a killer week! i can't believe i only have 8 weeks left! it makes me sick to think about. but m just gonna keep doing what i do and enjoy the work!

Love,

Elder Glenn

this little amphibian is called an ajolote and this picture was taken under water. these little

guys are sick looking

yes that is in fact a rear car bumper on a truck front fender...pero se ve bien locs no??

we had to clean out to missionaries houses because they closed more areas in our zone!

alright this week was AWESOME! so i had previously been a little discouraged for the lack of success in our area, but literally right after writing last week we had a district meeting and it was literally just for me. I'm not even kidding our ZL made it just for me and basically was telling me that i needed to have more faith and all this stuff just pounding on me and i wouldn't let up.....it was just this like internal struggle but then we read in DandC 63:9-11 and the spirit just hit me really hard and some words came to my mind that i just needed to humble myself and learn this. so i did. i let go of my pride and i let the spirit teach me. it was incredible the things i learned. i had been doubting the possibilities of success. i had been judging the people we teach. i had to do some repenting, but then some really cool stuff started to happen.

when we got to our area we started to work, but with the same kind of vigor and positivity that i worked in Valle. i knew that i just needed to work with faith diligence and be obedient. so i did. and we found a bunch of really cool people and taught with the spirit so strongly. i really felt that we were being guided by God. then we went to go with Else. now let me catch you all up on her, so she has been in Chihuahua city for the past like 2 weeks almost and we haven't had any communication with her. she had only been to church once and she really liked it but i just didn't know how this next visit was even going to go, let alone if we would find her. so we got to her house and started talking. she told us that while she was gone every day she prayed and was thinking about us. she said that every Sunday she prayed more and meditated about baptism. now that she was home she said that she was ready to be baptized! WOW. but it gets better! we had to teach her all the commandments because we hadn't taught her any, I had previously had the concern for her because she had been smoking a cigarette the first time we met her and said she smoked quite a bit and drank sometimes....when we taught her the word of wisdom she told us that like 3 days after we had initially met her she just got the feeling that she needed to stop smoking and drinking....so she did. and hasn't done either since! and she was more than willing to give up coffee and tea! she was so willing to fulfill all of the commandments. even tithing...which is huge because she lives in a literal shack. she inspired me so much.

so she got baptized on Saturday. i had no doubt that she would. the members in the branch have treated her so well and i think she really feels like family now. I'm so grateful that the Lord gives me so many blessings and over all the opportunity to be an instrument in His hands to do His will. i love you all and i am so grateful for you prayers, love and support. i hope you all have a great week!

hey so this week honestly not a ton happened. we weren't able to work in our area much because of meetings and stuff and some divisions, but we were able to work with a lot of members and get more people signed up and ready to go to the temple this month! we have been working really hard to get everyone ready and we started with only like 4 or 5 people that wanted to go, but now we have 12 that are committed to going so we will see how it works out, but we are hoping for the best! oh and we also had a cool activity with the youth that turned out pretty well because a couple of inactive young men came and now they want to come back to church and stuff and so we are having some success in the youth department which is good.

lots and lots of work to do in this little branch to help them because self sufficient, but its the Lords will and we are working hard to make it come true! thank you all for all of your thoughts and prayers! keep being awesome and well talk next week!

Love,

Elder Glenn

a little activity we did with the youth :)

E. Chan and me

E. Tolbert, E. McKay, and me

some cool roadrunner that some hippie lookin guys painted next to our appt complex

so ill get to explaining the title of this email...actually ill just let you all figure it out if you don't know what that means haha. lets just say I'm in Mexico and i ate a bad burrito on Friday and was up all night.....i consequently wasn't able to work this weekend so yeah....that was fun. it was really one of those "pasa de mi esta copa" type moments but i survived.

anyway ill get to something a little happier. so i have been contemplating a lot lately about what it is that i need to learn in these last few months...i think most missionaries will agree with me that there are certain "stages" in the mission and you are always learning big new important lessons. so i have been thinking a lot about this and been looking for signs and quite honestly i have come to realize that the Lord really wants me to learn to be SUPER obedient in these last few months. i have always known that it was important but it just hit me a lot harder. so i decided that i was going to be more obedient. follow ALL of the mission rules and avoid ANYTHING, be it small or big, that might potentially offend the Spirit. it's a day to day process but with God's help i have been able to make HUGE strides and feel the Spirit in more abundance.

so this has been my focus right? obedience. and i have been doing a lot better than normal. but something interesting happened on Thursday that i would like to share. so we had been working hard all day but really had no success.....yeah classic mission story disclaimer BTW haha....went to look for a bunch of people but couldn't find anyone and all the people we contacted in the streets just weren't feeling it. i had kept a positive attitude all day long even with the lack of success. i knew that i was being more obedient than ever and that i was working hard and had the right intentions, so i knew that the Lord would bless us....but when it hit about 7pm (about and hour and a half before we have to be home) i just got super discouraged. i just felt hardcore that we wouldn't have any success....but then i was quickly able to recognize that those feelings were coming from a negative source....not from God. so i just kept saying this one phrase over and over in my head....it's super cheesy but Bishop Edman will get a kick out of this. his definition of character that he made us memorize. "character is the ability to follow through with a desired objective long after the mood in which it was resolved has past." i said it a bunch just to pump me up and keep me going. then i said a prayer in my heart that we could just find someone special. i promised that i would talk to every single person i saw for the next hour and a half as long as we found someone special...and i had every intent of doing so.....and then we saw this lady walking towards us. i was like oh yeah lets go! but then she was on the other side of the road....and my mind was like "nah man shes over there you will look dumb crossing the road" and then i was like "yeah freaking right i have been working all day to find someone special that is waiting to hear this message and I'm not going to pass up the opportunity just because they are one the other side of the road!" so i crossed over and we talked to her. i had no idea what to say but i offered to help carry her blanket that she was carrying in her arms....and she laughed at me haha don't blame her. then we went to her house and helped her clean dishes and talked and she turned out to be SUPER awesome. i really hope she can progress because she really felt the spirit in that first lesson and i hope there are many more to come.

well that's about it guys. love you all loads and hope you have a great week!

so this was my first week as branch president. it was pretty cool. we worked hard this week and had some good success. so me and my comp get along really well and we work well together too. he is a really good guy and I'm glad to be working with him.

so i had a really cool experience yesterday in the branch. well we were about to have the gospel principles class which this one sister normally gives...when i just had this impression to give the class myself. i was observing the sisters face and mannerisms and i could tell something was off and aside from that i just knew that i needed to. but i didn't even know what the class was on. so i asked the sister if she had prepared the class and she kind of dodged the question and then i asked her if she would like me to give the class and her face lit up and said yes. so i just asked her which chapter they were on. it turned out to be about the Atonement. i hadn't prepared anything but i just went for it in our class of about 10 adults. some of them have been members for a LONG TIME and others not so much. but as i went about the class i found myself explaining things in ways that i had never done before and i found myself saying things that i didn't even know i knew before. it was a super awesome class and everyone participated and i felt really edified from it. i just left it at that thinking that it was good for me and that's about it. but then later that day when we went to go visit some members and one of the sisters that was in the class told me that that class was really awesome and she looked at the atonement with a whole new light. she said that the questions i left for them to answer themselves really impacted her and some others. i was moved by her words. i just want to make this clear that i know that i am not that great of a teacher or anything of the sort, but what i learned is that now, as the branch president i was able to receive the necessary revelation for the branch. i am so incredibly grateful for our Heavenly Father and that He has allowed me to be in this position to better help the people here in this branch of His vineyard.

well that's about all the time i have! love you all! ill send some pics next week! have a good one!

Well i just got my new comp yesterday, his name is Elder Chan. and he is from Cancún. he is a good kid. i can tell that he really wants to work hard and serve the Lord diligently, which is great because we need that here in San Juanito. we have some cool investigators right now and this one lady that we found came to church which was awesome! her name is Elsa. and she is confined to a wheelchair. when she was 8 she lost control of all her limbs and was in the hospital for several years, but now has control of her arms so she can get around in a wheelchair. shes like 25 i think and she is an inspiration...on top of being in a wheelchair, she lives at the highest point in this city! on top of a HUGE hill. and half of it is dirt and rock so its super hard to get up. she literally cant leave or come home unless someone helps her up there. we went up to her house on Sunday and helped her come to church and she really liked it. she also wants to get baptized so we are teaching her lots and praying for her so she can take this next step.

well Elder Woods left yesterday and will be going home early morning tomorrow. I'm gonna miss him but i'll get to see him when i get home for sure so I'm happy for that.

well not much else to day this week. i love you guys a ton and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Glenn

I will be serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Chihuahua, Mexico. I report to the Provo, UT MTC on Nov. 20, 2013

Contact info:

Email:jacob.glenn@myldsmail.netSnail Mail:Mexico Chihuahua MissionHuancune 1801-BColonia Panoramico31110 Chihuahua, ChihuahuaMexicoYou can also do Dear elder.com, just choose his mission and they will print it out at the mission home and get it to him. It sounds like they deliver things to him in his area about 1-2 times a month.